Kate Forster - The Perfect Retreat

Harold lowered his hands and rubbed them together. ‘Good answer. Now where’s my tea that you promised me?’

Just as he spoke the doorbell rang again and Willow let the waiter in with their afternoon tea. ‘Thank you. I’ll take it from here,’ said Willow to the waiter, still in her accent.

The waiter recognised Willow. He tried not to roll his eyes. Those bloody Americans who spent a few years here and then ended up speaking like the Princess of Wales, he thought as he left her suite.

Willow set up the tea in front of her and Harold. ‘Shall I be mother?’ she asked as she turned the teapot.

‘Yes please,’ he said. Willow poured the tea and set the tiny sandwiches and cakes out in front of them both.

‘Milk? Sugar?’ she asked.

‘Both please,’ he answered, as he watched her carefully pour the tea into the fine china cups.

‘Are you married, Willow?’

‘I was,’ she said. ‘Now separated.’

‘Ah; very modern thing, divorce. I’ve done it many times. You get used to it,’ he said.

‘I suppose I will. I have to,’ she said.

‘Yes, nothing to do but to get on with it, I’ve found.’

‘I’m trying,’ she said, and smiled as she handed him a small plate.

‘You’re from New York originally?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ she answered, unsure whether he wanted her to continue with her English accent.

‘And how have you found England?’ he asked.

‘It’s very much to my liking.’ She decided to stay with the accent. ‘I even like the weather.’

‘Well then, you must have an English soul.’ He laughed. ‘Will you stay here in England, once you’re divorced?’

Willow realised she hadn’t thought about geography. Moving to Middlemist was the only plan she had made, and she knew she couldn’t stay there forever.

‘I don’t know, to be honest with you. Perhaps. There’s not much in the US for me now. My parents work in New York but my children like it here; it’s all they know.’

Willow was still speaking in her English accent, but she was speaking from the heart. Harold watched her closely.

‘It must be hard to be the responsible one now. To have to make all the decisions.’

Willow felt her eyes filling with tears and looked down at her lap, trying to focus on the flowers on her dress as they became increasingly blurred. ‘Yes,’ she mumbled.

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